Laura Veirs | July Flame Thanks to the string of albums she's released over the past decade or so, this Portland-based folkie has cultivated a reputation as a gifted chronicler of the outdoor experience.

Laura Veirs | July Flame Thanks to the string of albums she's released over the past decade or so, this Portland-based folkie has cultivated a reputation as a gifted chronicler of the outdoor experience.

5 for '10 I love baby bands, and I hope the ones I mention here don't mind my calling them that.

Bleep the faith If you were young and had brain space to spare in 1985, those vacant folds were likely soon flooded with the vast audial ephemera of the Nintendo era.

Epic Win It never seemed possible, but metal is finally getting comfortable with indie-rock proportions. What once required enormous stages with catwalks and hyperactive spark machines now really needs only kids throwing all-ages shows in basements. It's a bit more modest an existence — nobler, somehow. Nerdier, even.

Japanimayhem Japanese acts attempting to interface with Western audiences often do so from behind a veil of inscrutability. Never mind that Japanese artists emerge from an alternate J-rock history that seldom intersects with ours. Tokyo's enduring Polysics have bridged this gap by expressing themselves as plainly as possible: with screaming, bouncing, eyeball-popping pogo pop so spastic that it breaks the language barrier.

Injustice for all Scott Sturgeon loses his train of thought a couple of times during this interview. He's loopy from jet lag — which is unavoidable after a 20-hour flight from New Zealand (halfway around the planet from his non-residency at a squatted apartment building in New York City), where he's just finished a tour with his claim-to-fame band, Leftover Crack.

Mood swings There’s nothing like getting socked in the head with a big fat metaphor — and if it’s carried along by some solid guitar playing, so much the better.

Thieving Irons | This Midnight Hum In five short years, Brooklyn's Pela attained something of a cult status among blogging music nerds and underground-indie-rock obsessives.

Ruse music Not that they’d be the first band to pad their résumé in their one-sheet, but even by industry standards, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’s backstory tests the threshold of plausibility.

Contemporary retro At what point does present-day genre saturation override a style's era of origin?